JERRY’S TAKE

Krause’s unpublished memoir sheds new light on Bulls breakup

Jerry Krause’s unreleased memoir has left more questions than answers to the unraveling of a Chicago Bulls team that won six NBA championships in an eight-year span.

Krause, the former general manager vilified in ESPN’s “The Last Dance” docu-series, died in 2017 at age 77, but told his side of the story in an unreleased excerpt provided to NBC Sports.

“We had the finest coach in the game in Phil Jackson, whom the public did not know, didn’t want to coach a rebuilding team and who’d informed us before the season that he wanted to ride off to Montana and take at least a year off,” Krause wrote.

That runs contrary to the accounts in The Last Dance, which claimed Krause gave Jackson one final season on his contract ahead of the Bulls’ 1998 NBA championship run before planning on giving the Zen Master the boot, trophy or not.

Krause, in his unpublished memoir, also voiced concerns about the makeup of the roster. He detailed a meeting attended by himself, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, assistant GM Jim Stack, strength coach Al Vermeil and other team trainers and finance managers, where they debated bringing the championship team back for another go-round.

According to Krause, they discussed starting center Luc Longley, whom the trainers felt wouldn’t last because of his “unstable ankles.” They discussed Dennis Rodman, with whom “each person in the room was concerned that

Dennis’ off-court meanderings had caught up with him, that he was playing on fumes at the end of the season.

“OK. No center, no power forward, very little (cap space) to sign anybody of any quality to replace them. Who defends in the middle if Jordan and Pippen do come back? Who rebounds?”

Krause wrote.

Then they spoke about Scottie Pippen, who notoriously held out and underwent surgery mid-season as a method of showing his displeasure with his status as an underpaid superstar.

“He wants to rightfully be paid superstar dollars. Is he worth the risk, especially if we can’t find a center and a power forward, and he and Michael have to carry the load for a new coach? I seriously doubt it,” Krause wrote.

And finally, he gets to Jordan, voicing concern of whether the greatest of alltime could carry a team that without both his supporting cast and the coach in Jackson who had already been on his way out.

“Can Michael continue his greatness without a center, power forward and possibly Pippen? Could Bill Russell, the greatest team player ever, have won without great players around him? No. Michael has said publicly that he will not play for a coach other than Phil. Phil has told us he’s gone. What does Michael do?” Krause wrote.

Jordan explained plainly how he felt things should have gone after the Bulls pulled off the second threepeat: The front office should have offered everyone a oneyear deal, Jackson included, to go after vaunted championship ring No. 7.

“Put yourself in our shoes as we walk out of that room. What would you do? Did we break up a dynasty or was the dynasty breaking up of age, natural attrition of NBA players with little time to recuperate and the salary-cap rules that govern the game?”

It was Krause’s job to make the tough decisions — the decisions that helped lead the 90’s Bulls to their standing as one of the greatest teams in NBA history, and eventually that led to the undoing of a dynasty.

Krause decided on the pragmatic approach rather than running it back for a shot at a seventh ring. It’s possible he was right, the party was over, and forgoing the struggle of one final season preserved the Bulls’ greatness in amber for all time. It’s certain, however, that the decision not to strain with every fiber to try left us with the maddening proposition of What If.